Shooting At Windsor Apartment Complex Sparks Debate About Growth

SONOMA COUNTY, CA — Windsor residents this week are questioning a building boom after two gunmen entered a Windsor apartment and fired several rounds, injuring a man inside.

The incident happened at about 9:45 p.m. Friday at the Shiloh Terrace Apartments, according to the Windsor Police Department.

A 40-year-old man was struck once in the leg.

Medics transported him to a local hospital with a non-life-threatening injury.

The shooting provoked a series of responses online from Windsor residents blaming crime on the changes between Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, where the population of 26,000 has seen an influx of new businesses, renters, home buyers and apartments.

Comments on the Town of Windsor Police Department Facebook page, where the shooting was reported, zoomed in on growth while also associating the shooting with immigrants and income.

"Oh just great! Those just opened up a while ago. Didn’t take long," Kari Taeuffer wrote, referring to the Shiloh Terrace Apartments where the shooting happened.

"Naw ... Just a sleepy bedroom community... NOT!" Lloyd Seevers wrote on Facebook.
"What has our city government done to us! They must be replaced. Enough apartments," Dan Demuth wrote.

"Keep building apartment’s it’s only get worse," wrote another Facebook user.

Between 2022 and 2023 the population of Windsor declined from 26,320 to 26,179, a decrease of half a percent, and its median household income grew from $128,115 to $129,004, representing a 0.69 percent increase, according to 2023 Census figures.

That same year, the median property value in Windsor was $763,200, and the homeownership rate was 74.5 percent, indicating that new apartment buildings may be bringing unexpected demographic changes.

A schoolteacher, Beth Hester Colagrossi, wrote that the apartments are important sources of housing for residents whose incomes are low compared to the cost of living in Sonoma County.

"So much hate going on here, and just mean comments," she wrote.

"Cost of homes are prohibitive for many. I am a public school teacher and the only way I can live in the community where I serve is to live in an apartment. I am thankful for the roof over my head. When you visualize low income families, please remember that most teachers in Sonoma County are considered low income. I love Windsor and have lived here for 20 years. I don’t want to move anywhere else, so apartments are what I get," she wrote.

"Let’s try and see the positive in people, instead. Thank goodness the person who was shot is not facing life-threatening injuries. So thankful our first responders. Thank goodness we live in a wonderful community."

The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating the incident.

Anyone with information related to the shooting (case number WI251024-004) should contact the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Violent Crimes Unit at (707) 565-2185.